


Twin Skeletons

by PoliticalBloodTea



Category: Animorphs - Katherine A. Applegate, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-15
Updated: 2015-07-15
Packaged: 2018-04-09 12:27:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4348784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PoliticalBloodTea/pseuds/PoliticalBloodTea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Feelings between the Animorphs and the Avengers are deep and complicated.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Twin Skeletons

**Author's Note:**

  * For [reasonablywittyatbest](https://archiveofourown.org/users/reasonablywittyatbest/gifts).



> Based on [this](http://demenior.tumblr.com/post/120750097664/okay-but-what-about-an-animorphs-avengers-mashup) post over on tumblr

Marco was amused by Tony Stark. The feeling was not mutual, and that entertained Marco more. They ran across each other at parties, both surrounded by tall, gorgeous women, and when they would stop and chat loudly and boisterously like the rest of the room expected them to Marco got the feeling they were only trying to impress each other. Posturing like peacocks, ignoring the women. They competed over who could make the people surrounding them laugh loudest, over who could make the other laugh against their will first, who could turn more heads. Marco always won. Stark was a tabloid prince and richer than god, richer than Marco, certainly. But he’d never saved the world. So Marco always won. He knew Stark didn’t like him, he knew he got under Stark’s skin every time they ran into each other, but even Stark’s revenge was amusing and creative and Marco loved it. His favorite was the time he managed to add all of Stark’s women to his own harem for the night. A subsidiary of Stark Industries had bought the channel Marco’s TV show aired on the next day, and the only commercials shown for the rest of the season were for Viagra and adult diapers.

Iron Man happens and Maco laughs for days. Stark actually wins their ridiculous competition for a few months after his press conference. He is new and literally shiny and the press loves it and Marco feels what it’s like to be able to step into a room and not be the most sought after person for awhile. He doesn’t hate it. When the Chitauri and the Avengers happens Marco sends an obnoxious amount of edible fruit arrangements and a note that says, “Thanks for taking care of the homicidal aliens this time, I got next - xoxo Marco.” He also sends a short text, “Don’t let Jake join the team. He doesn’t need to do this again.”

 

 

Steve Rogers could not trust Jake Berenson. There was still a world for Steve to be awakened in, and the technology that did it was alien, facilitated partially through Berenson’s diplomacy, SHIELD agents reacted them same way to Berenson as the soldiers had done with Steve in 1945, a bit like they were in the presence of a deity, Berenson had led a successful guerrilla rebellion to save all of mankind at the age of 16 and Steve did not trust him.

The Animorphs were the first thing he read when he came out of the ice. He had wanted to start farther back in history, closer to his near death, but everyone insisted that the Animorphs and their war with the Yeerks were so important and world changing it made 70 years of history moot. Steve had been impressed with Jake, with all the Animorphs, when he first started reading. Taking on a war for the earth at the age of 13 was so remarkable Steve felt like everything he had done with his own life was suddenly a lot less impressive. He admired Berenson’s leadership abilities and strategical skills. 

When he read how the war ended he hoped that he and Berenson never had to work together. He could not wrap his head around Berenson’s decision to send his own cousin on a suicide mission to kill his brother. When he read the transcript from Visser One’s trial he found himself agreeing with the defense attorney who accused Berenson of being a war criminal himself. Berenson had murdered seventeen thousand prisoners of war in cold blood. Anyone who could do that should be treated with wariness, not reverence. 

The first time Fury brought Berenson in to consult with the Avengers Steve refused to speak to him unless Berenson spoke to him first. Steve was distant and polite, but he couldn’t help rolling his eyes when Tony, Bruce, or Clint acted a little too star struck. Only Natasha seemed to treat Berenson with the same caution that Steve did.

Berenson apparently didn’t miss it because he motioned for Steve to stay behind with him after the meeting, and Steve did so out of curiosity and a need to assess Berenson further. Berenson was younger than Steve, but his eyes were old the same way some of the soldiers Steve served with had been. Steve tried not to feel unnerved under their gaze. “We may have to work together one day, are we going to have a problem?” Berenson asked.

Steve gave him a considering look. “Do you expect me to trust you if we work together?”

Berenson gave a tired laugh and a bitter smile. “You know, I managed to make it through the war with the Yeerks without knowing if my team ever completely trusted me, so no, you don’t have to trust me.”

He left Steve staring at his back as he exited the room without another word.

 

 

Aximili respected Thor. The Asgard were not a race known to the Andalites, and yet they were similar in many ways. Asgardians valued art and science, but also knew there was a need for warriors in service of their people. Thor’s own story of adopting the human race and choosing to fight side by side with humans mirrored Ax’s own so closely that he immediately felt a kinship with Thor without ever first meeting him.

When Ax made trips to Earth, either for diplomatic reasons or simply because he missed his friends and his adopted home, he would set aside time to meet with Thor if Thor was also on Earth. Ax had never met a non-Andalite who understood the life and duty of a warrior as well as Thor did. Ax had learned well that humans had the capacity to empathize with their enemies in ways that were foreign to Andalite and Asgard alike, Thor was learning the same lessons and while Ax had adopted many human sympathies he valued having someone to talk to who understood his still occasional frustration.

They had many hours of discussion about the duties of a warrior to his people when those people were suddenly of two different species spread across two different planets. Ax felt that he could offer advice to Thor, despite Thor’s age. Ax was well used to being more experienced in things than his elders, and he saw Thor struggling with the same issues Ax had experienced in his early days on Earth. They both knew that loyalty to their birth people would always pull and rub against their loyalty and love for humans, they were perhaps the only two on Asgard, the Andalite Homeworld, or Earth who understood what it felt like. They were unique and they were kin.

 

 

Natasha knew she made Cassie see ghosts. They had met only once, both women had been unnerved by the other and yet strangely drawn in. Natasha did not like the way Cassie made her feel. She felt handled by Cassie, like she already knew everything hiding inside Natasha’s mind, even the things she kept buried deep. Cassie knew all her softest spots by sheer intuition. That was made more terrifying by knowing that Cassie would never use her knowledge, and Natasha couldn’t trust that. She couldn’t trust never, she could only trust that Cassie would hold on to the knowledge as long as possible and use it at the worst moment in the most devastating way possible.

Cassie smiled kindly but sadly at her. Natasha knew everything about Rachel. Rachel had become a sort of idol in the Red Room, because news of what the Animorphs had done reached even that dark and guarded place. She knew that Cassie saw Rachel in her, how much or how little she didn’t know, just enough for Cassie to look haunted when they were forced to speak to each other. Natasha did not appreciate being compared to a dead girl, even one like Rachel. She had no desire to talk to Cassie about what she saw in Natasha, or help her deal with her lingering grief over her dead friend.

Cassie was added to a very short list of people Natasha would not interact with, even for the sake of keeping up appearances. She kept her distance and shoved away any recurring visions of Cassie’s sad, knowing eyes.


End file.
